"Perry and his hand-picked highway henchmen say we have a choice: no roads, slow roads or toll roads," Strayhorn said. "I say to Governor Perry and his highway henchmen: Hogwash. Vote our way today for freeways."

The crowd chanted "Clean house, clean house!" in a taunt for the Legislature.

"I'll give my life so my son gets my farm and not Governor Perry!" shouted John Ricke, 66, a retired Houston firefighter who lives on his family farm in Bastrop.

"The Trans-Texas Corridor would be devastating to our community," Socha said.

Actually an old quote from Perry, but it's still good today. "It's not a critters, birds, bees, foxes, jaguars issue," Perry told a landowners rally near Austin in 1994. "It's about land control. You've got it, and the (federal government) wants to control it."

"Private property issues, that's a huge issue for many people, Protest organizer Hollie Ullrich said. A lot of people are concerned about the tolling system and who would have control of that and where the money would go."